Hi,
I am doing some internship work for a company and was tasked with reverse engineering this quadcopter. The main thing I am trying to figure out is the electrical components. The copter will be fully autonomous and use AI. Does anyone have any recommendations of where I should start? I know I will need the basics like motors, escs, battery, power modules, and then the Cube Orange and the HERE 3 GPS. I am happy to answer any questions.
Thanks
The 1st thing to do is get a subscription to eCal so you can size the components for the frame size, weight and battery power. They gave you the starting points in the specs.
Hey, thanks for the reply. I have a subscription already and have used the calc a bit but I contacted MAD components for the motor and they gave me the one used for the drone. This motor comes with a recommended ESC and prop. They also recommended a battery which is similar to the one used in the drone that is trying to be replicated. I am mainly looking for how the electrical parts will be set up and just more general info on drones especially autonomous ones.
Again, thank you.
There is an entire set of Wiki documents to read. It wouldn’t make much sense to piecemeal it here. Read thru it and then ask targeted questions.
Do you have any idea about level of reverse engineering task?
Oh more specifically, what kind of reverse engineering level are you going to achieve?
Reverse engineering is quite a topic, let’s just make it simple and divided into levels based on complexity and depth: (It’s not accurately divided, but just for us to know what the task want to achieve.)
Basic Level: At this level, reverse engineers usually try to understand the surface structure of software or hardware. This includes examining file formats, simple binary analysis, or hardware disassembly.
Intermediate Level: This involves analyzing and understanding more complex structures and processes, such as the working mechanism of code, data structures, and communication protocols. It may require decompiling and static analysis of the code.
Advanced Level: This level involves in-depth analysis of the internal logic, algorithms, and implementations of software or hardware. It may involve dynamic debugging, reverse writing of code, and reproduction of hardware schematics.
Professional Level: At this level, reverse engineers need to completely reproduce or replicate a complex system, including all its details and functionalities. This usually involves reverse engineering design documents, modifying or optimizing systems, and even discovering security vulnerabilities.
Then there might be a good start point for you to consider.
Hey,
Thanks for the reply. So, basically the task I was given was to find out what hardware parts we would need to replicate the specs of the copter linked above. I don’t know much about the software side of things because I am studying mechanical and do not have much interest in software. If I had to pick a level it would be between 3 and 4. The copter that we are wanting to build wont be an exact replica, but will be modeled after the one above.
OK.
so the task is focused on:
Is there any other part that are necessary for the mission? (As I have removed electronic related parts)
— EDIT
I’m not expert on mechanical, but it’s interesting on this topic, expecially on frame or propeller design. And I think @Chandlxr you must be more capable of doing these engineer work than me.
There are quite a lot of design steps for those mechanical parts. Hope there will be more expert blog on these topic.
I don’t think you’ll have much joy trying to copy an H-frame. They’re notoriously difficult to tune. The fact that they used one in a $10k quad means that they either know exactly what they’re doing and got the setup down to a T, including very specific components, a very well designed frame and an extensive Ardupilot tune, or it’s a bad product and they just liked the different look. Both options are bad news for your endeavour.
There’s really not much need for all of this GPT-inspired reverse engineering discussion. Take the basic specs from that page, use eCalc to determine a set of motors and props to support the required payload and flight duration, and, as Olli alludes, go with an X frame for better rigidity.
Okay thanks for the info
It is less about the motors and props and more about the electronics required to fly.
Yeah it is not so much about the software side as it is mechanical and electrical engineering work. TBH it is mostly electrical, something I don’t love, but don’t mind doing either. I have gotten it narrowed down pretty well. Mainly what I am looking for it what exactly a drone needs to fly besides the obvious motor, prop, esc, battery. I understand the CUBE ORANGE handles the lower level instructions and there will be a HERE 3 GPS. I mainly have to figure out how everything connects together which I am working on now, but between my regular job and school, this unpaid side work is becoming a bit much. lol
If you want to use ArduPilot, there’s really no reverse engineering to determine adequate electronics hardware. You need, at a minimum:
An autopilot
– (the Cube Orange or Orange+ is a good choice)
A GNSS (GPS) module
– (the Here 3 is not a great choice - look at Holybro or CUAV options that use M10 or F9P based GNSS modules)
An RC transmitter and receiver
– (RadioMaster makes great hardware that uses the ExpressLRS protocol)
Telemetry radios
– (exact model depends on desired range)
A computer to function as the GCS
– (a Windows laptop works great)
Since motors and props are not of concern, I did not discuss the ESC nor battery/power system. It should be implicit that you need a way to power and drive the propulsion system.
Focusing on:
All those parts are connected through interfaces. Let’s take hardware for example, check FC interfaces:
Each components connect to each other through those interfaces, and work following their protocols.
I think what we need to understand how they get to work first, and then there might be any kind of reverse engineer wrok for a component or a copter. As the tilte is a big topic, you can post detailed topics for discussion, which might be more specific to answer.
And there are software API(protocols) runing behind on those hardware interfaces, which will need to look into the code for details.
It seems that it is ZHT’s frame
They have good portabliity and endurance and payloads.
They are practical than any other quads.
I don’t think this is an academic exercise in reverse engineering at all, and I’m not sure your responses are actually helping. The topic might be better stated: “How can I build an ArduPilot-based quadcopter like this one with similar capabilities?”
Indeed, some of their designs look VERY similar and would likely provide and excellent platform.
If the topic is “How can I build an ArduPilot-based quadcopter like this one with similar capabilities?” then it has nothing to do with reverse engineering.
Maybe OP can answer the question about key idea of the topic. What I’m talking about here is how to analyze the module through reverse engineering and perform segmentation around it. I’m NOT sure if it might help also.